Macalester ranked 25th best liberal arts college

In August the U.S. News and World Report released its annual report on the best U.S. colleges. Macalester ranked number 25 among liberal arts colleges that focus on undergraduate studies. The report was based on seven primary factors ranging from retention and student selectivity to financial and faculty resources. The colleges provided most of the data contributing to these factors. Remaining gaps were filled in by national organizations such as the American Association of University of Professors and the U.S. Department of Education. Macalester moved up one spot from its 2003 ranking. Schools such as Williams, Amherst and Swarthmore top the current list.
 

Viruses, hacker attacks cripple Macalester network

Since the beginning of the semester Macalester’s Computer Information Technology department (CIT) has been plagued by numerous network problems. Beginning in August numerous viruses have been slowing and even shutting down the network. During the past two weeks there have been problems accessing course folders, e-mail and Internet server outages and login problems. A flood of false traffic, clogging the legitimate traffic on the server, caused a denial of service attack on Monday morning. The attack was blocked Tuesday morning, which eased some of the network strain. Dorms, such as Turck and Bigelow, are still having operating problems, mainly due to computers still infected with viruses and worms. CIT asks that everyone on campus double check to ensure that all computers are up to date with the Windows patches and has an anti-virus program with the latest virus definitions. To download the free anti-virus visit www.macalester.edu/cit/safecomputing.

(Bryanna Longley-Postema)
 

Annual Welcome Week film hits many hurdles, is canceled

Copyright agreements, a missing film package and the appearance of a bootleg DVD all contributed to the cancellation of the Sept. 2 showing of The Matrix: Reloaded. Swank Motion Pictures, a St. Louis based company, provides Macalester with up to 80 percent of the films shown on campus. A miscommunication between Swank and the Programming Board over showtimes led to Swank not filling the order. A bootlegged copy of the film surfaced, but Director of Campus Programs Brian Wagner decided that the use of an illegal film format “just wasn’t a good choice.” Due to the strict copyright guidelines, Macalester was not able to obtain another film and the showing was canceled just before the scheduled showtime.

(Michael Barnes)